Maya is probably the most famous of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. The story begins at the Mayan Yucatan around 2600 BC, the Maya have become famous around the year 250 AD in modern southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.

Based on inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations, such as the Olmec, the Maya made great strides in astronomy, calendar systems and hieroglyphic writing. Maya attracted attention for its architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. Maya History shows that they were very skilled farmers, cleared large areas of rainforest. Where groundwater is not enough, they were building underground reservoirs for the storage of large volumes of rainwater. Maya were skilled weavers, potters, they cleared routes through jungles and swamps to trade with distant peoples.

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